Eric Cantor says Democrats will lose their majority if they use reconciliation to jam health care reform through Congress.

Democrats no longer seem scared of that type of prediction.

Nancy Pelosi says she’ll get the votes again for health care, and so does top White House health care adviser Nancy Ann DeParle. Republicans call it the nuclear option, but will happily use the backlash to further widen the playing field in November’s election.

And once again, we have a race to a deadline – that Easter date is four weeks away.

RECONCILIATION IS A GO: And there will be a backlash. POLITICO’s Carrie Budoff Brown reports: “Democrats took heat over the ‘Louisiana Purchase,’ and ultimately disavowed the ‘Cornhusker Kickback.’ Now, they are racing to keep Republicans from defining the only legislative tool left to salvage the health care reform bill as yet another tactic hatched in a Democratic back room. During a year in which ‘deal’ is a dirty word, Democratic congressional leaders are already waging a battle to defend reconciliation and beat back Republican charges that the fast-track rules are an abuse of power. Democrats, including President Barack Obama, like to say Americans care more about the shape of a final bill than the way it was passed. But the Senate health care bill has suffered, in part, because of a voter backlash over the tactics Democrats employed to secure 60 votes in the Senate. Republicans are craving a repeat.”

PELOSI MAY HAVE THE VOTES: NYT’s Robert Pear reports: “Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she is confident she will be able to get the votes needed to pass sweeping health care legislation in the House, even if it threatens the political careers of some members of her party. In an interview carried Sunday on ABC’s ‘This Week,’ Ms. Pelosi said she was working on changes to a Senate-passed bill that would make it acceptable to the House. Ms. Pelosi was asked what she would say to House Democrats who were ‘in real fear of losing their seats in November if they support you now.’ ‘Our members, every one of them, wants health care,’ Ms. Pelosi said. ‘They know that this will take courage. It took courage to pass Social Security. It took courage to pass Medicare. And many of the same forces that were at work decades ago are at work again against this bill.”

CANTOR PREDICTION: “If Speaker Pelosi rams through this bill through the House using the reconciliation process, they will lose their majority in Congress in November,’ House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R., Va.) said on NBC's ‘Meet the Press.’

PELOSI’S TESTS: We’re entering a critical stretch that may very well determine Nancy Pelosi’s legacy as speaker. Jonathan Allen and John Bresnahan in POLITICO: “Asked this weekend to grade her performance as speaker, Nancy Pelosi gave herself an “A for effort.” But Pelosi knows that the real test is still to come.

"Pelosi is inarguably one of the strongest speakers in modern history — an authoritarian figure in an era of centralized power in the House. But the coming months are a make-or-break period for her, a brutal reality check of her ability to manage all aspects of her job — consensus-building, agenda-setting, vote-counting, fundraising and campaigning. Now in her fourth year as speaker and eighth overall as the top Democrat in the House, Pelosi has never faced such a daunting set of challenges.”

IF HARRY REID LOSES: It’s Schumer vs. Durbin for majority leader, and the two have quietly been building chits. Emily Pierce in Roll Call: “Senate Democratic Conference Vice Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.) helped fellow Democrat Bob Casey (Pa.) get a seat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee last year, while Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) gave up his chairmanship of a powerful Judiciary subcommittee to Sen. Arlen Specter when the Pennsylvanian switched parties from the GOP last spring. In 2006, Schumer helped persuade several Democrats to vote for Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-La.) bill to increase oil drilling; in 2007, Durbin helped Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) get a consumer product safety bill squeezed into a packed floor schedule.

“As Durbin and Schumer eye a potential race for Senate Majority Leader this fall, the winner is likely to be decided not on the basis of either lawmakers’ political bent or ability to spin in front of the TV cameras, but on what the rank and file really care about: What have you done for me lately? “The key to being elected Leader is that you have to be the most selfless person in what is inherently the most selfish body in the world,” said one former Senate Democratic aide with sustained ties to the Hill.”

FANNIE FREDDIE OVERHAUL? Republicans want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to be overhauled. Silla Brush in The Hill: “Two House Republicans are criticizing the Obama administration for not presenting an overhaul plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two home loan giants continuing to receive massive taxpayer bailouts.

“Republican Reps. Darrell Issa (Calif.) and Jim Jordan (Ohio) said it is "unacceptable" that the administration has not detailed how the companies should be restructured. The administration was expected in its 2011 budget to present a policy for the future of the companies, but the administration was silent on the two firms that needed to be bailed out under the weight of heavy real estate losses.”

IN THE SENATE TODAY: CongressDaily sets up the critical COBRA and unemployment vote: “Majority Leader Reid is planning to open debate today on a roughly $150 billion measure combining long-term extensions of expiring unemployment benefits, COBRA healthcare subsidies for laid-off workers with an increase in Medicaid reimbursements to states, dozens of lapsed tax breaks for businesses, farm disaster aid and other provisions.

“According to a draft 254-page version circulated last week, the portions of the bill extending unemployment insurance and COBRA through the end of this year, and tacking on an extra six months of Medicaid assistance, are designated as emergency spending and exempt from pay/go rules. Those provisions alone total more than $100 billion, and make up the lion's share of the bill. The rest of the bill -- the tax extender package, a seven-month extension of higher Medicare physician payments, agricultural assistance and other provisions -- would be offset with what appeared to be about $43 billion in revenue-raisers and spending cuts.”

WHITHER TEA PARTY CANDIDATES? Even though the conservative grass roots are surging, the reality is that the Republican Senate class of 2010 will be filled with moderates that cause fits for the right. Janet Hook in the LA Times: “With healthcare legislation mired in partisanship, "tea party" activists on the march and GOP leadership dominated by conservatives, Capitol Hill looks like a parched landscape for the withered moderate wing of the Republican Party.

“But green shoots are sprouting in Washington and on the campaign trail. A small band of Republican moderates in the Senate broke a logjam on jobs legislation. They added to their ranks with the arrival of another New England Republican, Scott Brown. And several moderate Republicans are in a good position to win Senate seats in November. Rep. Michael N. Castle, one of the most liberal Republicans in the House, is heavily favored to win an open Senate seat in Delaware. Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, the GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois, handily won the party's primary despite opposition from conservatives.”

WJLA WASHINGTON WEATHER: High pressure will build into the region briefly overnight and into tomorrow allowing for sunshine and high temperatures near 50 degrees. An area of low pressure will develop off the Texas coast and is expected to move eastward and reemerge off the North Carolina coast Tuesday. Latest models indicate the storm will form further out to sea keeping heavier precipitation amounts away from our area.

In order to save our country as we know it. We must purge both the Democratic and Republican parties of the Elitist Liberals and Progressives. We must elect non career leaders that will enact term limits so they do not become career Politicians. I am donating, and encourage others to donate to Conservative ( I do not mean progressive) primary candidates all over the country. If we are to survive we must take control of our country. Political Links